Title

When You're Having Fun

Creator

Devaney, Hilary

Studio Specialty

Painting

View

Full size

Year

2014

Work Type

painting

Material/Technique

oil on canvas

Dimensions

60x48 in.

Artist Statement

Reflecting on the words that call certain images to my mind I noticed that most of my associations are not literal translations of the word or phrase to a symbolic image, rather, they are impressions of memories I have of my first time experiencing those words. Realizing that the image that comes to mind at the mention of a certain phrase is derived from my personal experience with that phrase, I asked myself why it is I still carry these images with me, instead of replacing them with new images that more accurately reflect my current experience with that phrase. I set out to answer what it means for seemingly incongruous images to be interchangeable with specific words by creating four diptychs, each containing a pictorial image alongside its textual counterpart. In juxtaposing paintings of images and text (which are static in the confinement of their medium) side by side, I don’t simulate the immediacy of the words and images colliding as it happens in my memory, but rather I freeze them in place before the collision and force them to interact on a wall for an unnaturally long period of time, drawing out the strange senselessness in these word/image associations.